Jenny Curran
Jennifer "Jenny" Gump (neé Curran) (July 16, 1945 - March 22, 1982) was Forrest Gump's childhood friend, love interest, and later, wife. She was played by Robin Wright as an adult and by Hanna Hall as a child. Jenny would later die of an unknown disease (most likely Hepatitis C or HIV, as they were unknown diseases at the time) due to her long term heroin and cocaine use as well as sexual actions. Birth and Education Jenny Curran was born on July 16th, 1945 in Taylor, Arkansas. Her mother died when she was 5 years old. She was raised by their father, a farmer, who physically and sexually abused Jenny and her sisters Forrest first meets Jenny on the bus to school, and she invites him to sit with him, which Forrest gratefully accepts (as none of the other students would let him sit with them). Later some boys cruise up on bikes and throw rocks at Forrest, knocking him off his feet after which Jenny urges him to run, screaming "Run, Forrest, run!" It was dificult to walk and run, and as he ran this time, his leg braces broke off. He ran across town, literally kicking up dust as he passes. Then one day, Jenny isn't at school and Forrest goes to her house, which is on a farm. Jenny's drunken father pursues Jenny and Forrest, but they hide in a cornfield, where they kneel down and pray to God, "Dear God, make me a bird, so that I can fly far, far, far away from here". Jenny's father is arrested, and she is sent to live with her grandmother in her trailer. But occasionally she would go out and stay with Forrest, claiming she was scared. Forrest believed this was due to her Grandma's dog. College Jenny and Forrest remained best friends through high school and when he is targeted by the same bullies, now in a truck, Jenny once more yells "Run, Forrest, run!" Jenny attends a college, but Forrest is unable to attend with her because "It's an all-girls college". One rainy night, when he goes to visit Jenny in the pouring rain with a box of chocolates, Forrest notices a car in which Jenny and her date Billy are trying to make out, but when Jenny accidentally hits her head against the car window, Forrest mistakenly believes that Billy is hurting her and opens the door to the car and proceeds to beat him, in his own car, angering Jenny. Billy gets mad and drives off. Jenny despite being annoyed, invites Forrest into her dorm room. There, they both take off all their wet clothing, and Jenny covers Forrest's lower half with her roommate's bathrobe. It is implied that Forrest is still a virgin, when she asks him about women, and Forrest mentions sitting next to one in Home Economics class. Jenny takes her bra off and places his hand on her breast, causing him to have an orgasm. They make a joke and laugh, about something that never happened in Home Economics class and the camera pans out to show her terrified roommate lying in bed just a few feet away from them, still awake. While in college, Jenny gets into trouble after she is caught taking almost naked photos in her college vest for Playboy magazine. She is expelled, and is soon hired by a man to work in a strip club. Forrest, then in Army basic training, sees the naked pictures of Jenny in the ''Playboy ''magazine after an army buddy of his tosses it to him, and after his basic training commences, goes to see her at the strip club. Jenny, under the stage name "Bobbie Dylan", is naked, playing a folk song with a guitar on stage and the men are not too happy about her covering herself up in the strip club. Some of the men try to grab Jenny's legs, and one pours a drink on her feet. Forrest attacks the men and jumps on the stage, and attempts to walk Jenny out the door, although it ends in embarrassment for both of them and Jenny gets fired. They have a small interaction outside, where Jenny scolds Forrest for always acting as the hero with her, to which Forrest replies it's because he loves her, though Jennys doesn't think Forrest even knows what love is. During this interaction, she remembers the time they prayed whether they were kids, exposing to the viewers that Jenny has fallen into a depressed state, though not said, as she briefly leans off a bridge and comments on her death, asking Forrest if he thinks God would let her turn into a bird and fly away. She then gets a lift from a complete stranger, but Forrest hits her with a bombshell. "They sending me, to Vietnam". She then advises him to simply run away if he finds himself in danger. She gets in the pickup truck and leaves. Hippie While Forrest is in Vietnam, he writes Jenny many letters, none of which ever reach her. Jenny continues her downward spiral, and becomes a hippie participating in the anti-Vietnam war protests, and doing heavy drugs in the process. She is reunited with Forrest in Washington DC, while he was making a speech on the war, and they spend the day together, going to a Black Panther Party safe house. However, the Black Panthers are not happy with Forrest's presence, and neither is Jenny's abusive boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS at Berkeley. Forrest then sees Wesley argue with Jenny and slap her, and Forrest retaliates, by attacking him. Forrest and Jenny are forced to leave, and they spend the rest of the night together walking around Washington DC. The next day, Jenny leaves for Berkeley with Wesley, much to Forrest's dismay. Before Jenny leaves, Forrest gives her his Congressional medal of honor, crediting her for his earning it. Forrest doesn't see Jenny again for a long time, but he frequently thinks of her and is hoping that she is happy in whatever she is doing. However, during this time, Jenny succumbs further to a life of drugs and prostitution. She eventually hits an all time low, and comes close to attempting suicide by almost leaping off the top floor of a hotel. After the war One day, Jenny, partly in an attempt to rebuild her life, arrives at Forrest's home and stays with him for a while. Forrest explains that they'd walk a lot together. He did all the talking and she did all the listening, and Forrest also tells her about Vietnam, playing ping pong, the shrimping business, and his mother going up to Heaven where her own mother is. One day, they happened to walk in front of Jenny's father's abandoned house, where she was abused by her father as a child. Though Forrest hadn't stopped talking, Jenny walked up to the house and looked at it for a few seconds. She then threw her shoes at the house, and then proceeded to pick up a handful of rocks and feverishly throw them at the house, hitting boards and breaking windows, all the while saying things like, "How dare you." It's suggested that this is the moment when Forrest realizes that Jenny's father had molested her and her sisters and how it has agonized her, even in her adult years. She then runs out of rocks and falls to the ground, crying, to which Forrest quietly sits with her, and (in his narration) says, "I guess sometimes there just aren't enough rocks." The next few days, things go well, as Forrest gives Jenny flowers, Jenny gives Forrest running sneakers, and they learn how to dance. On July 4th, 1976, the US National Bicentennial, Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but Jenny refuses, saying, "You don't want to marry me." Forrest is hurt, feeling that Jenny doesn't love him, and replies with: "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is." Later that night, Jenny comes into Forrest's room, saying she does love him, and the two have sex. Jenny leaves early the next morning, leaving Forrest heart-broken and lonely. She gets a job as a waitress in Savannah, Georgia, and in mid-1978, sees news footage of Forrest running across America, and is amazed. Present day and Death In the movie, Forrest Gump Jr. first appears towards the end of the movie when Forrest comes to visit Jenny in Georgia. As they talk, Jenny starts to apologize for all the times, in the past she acted badly to Forrest because of her own problems. Then, there's a knock at the door, to which a woman drops off a little boy to Jenny. To which Jenny introduces the little boy to Forrest. Then he asks Jenny if he can go watch T.V. She says yes but to keep it low. Jenny tells Forrest that her son is named Forrest. Also because she named him after his daddy to which Forrest asks her if she knows another man named Forrest. Which Jenny replies, "You're his daddy Forrest." This sends Forrest into a shock but Jenny tells him he didn't do anything wrong and that Forrest Jr is one of the smartest kids in his class. Forrest then goes into the room to watch Sesame Street with his son and begins bonding with him. Jenny later reveals that she is ill and is suffering from an unknown virus with no cure ( Hepatitis C or AIDS) Forrest asks Jenny and little Forrest to come and live with him, where he promises to take care of both of them. The two marry soon after, in a ceremony at Forrest's house, in which several family and friends, including Lt. Dan. One day, some time later, an ailing Jenny asks Forrest if he was scared in Vietnam, with Forrest replying that sometimes he was. Then, he remembered the occasional starry nights in Vietnam, comparing them to the sunsets on the Bayou, comparing the water to the clear mountain lake during Forrest's long run, and finally comparing the sky to the sunrises in the desert also during Forrest's run. Jenny wishes she had been with Forrest through it all, even though Forrest says she was. Jenny eventually died on March 22nd, 1982, the day that the space shuttle ''Columbia ''was launched on STS-3, (the third space shuttle mission). Near the end of the film, we see Forrest standing beside Jenny's grave, under their oak tree, talking to her. He mentions that he bought the land that had belonged to Jenny's father, and had the house demolished. He is taking care of little Forrest, as the two read books, play ping pong and go fishing. Finally Forrest ponders on whether his mother's life philosophy about having a destiny, or Lt. Dan's life philosophy about floating around accidently on a breeze is accurate, eventually deciding that both of them are right. Forrest then tearfully tells Jenny that he misses her and promises to be near if she needs anything. As Forrest leaves the grave, he watches the birds fly (It is implied that at this moment, Forrest realizes that God has finally answered Jenny's childhood prayer to be made a bird and fly away) In the last scene, Forrest is waiting with his son by the bus stop, waving him off to his first day of school. Gallery Jenny as hypee.gif|Jenny as a hippie. Forrest and Jenny talking to Lt. Dan on their wedding day.jpg|Forrest and Jenny talking to Lt. Dan on their wedding day. Were-You-Scared-In-Vietnam_.jpg|Forrest and Jenny's last time together before she dies. forrest-gump-jenny-grave.jpg|Forrest stands next to Jenny's grave. Category:Deceased Category:Characters